Here are a few points I ask you to keep in mind.

“Getting organized” can be a swell thing — but only once you’ve gotten rid of the mountains of crap that you’ve allowed to overrun your life.

Far and away the biggest and most important part of “getting organized” is in fact getting rid of those mountains of crap. That’s one of the first steps I take with every client, no matter the situation. Another big part is helping people reconsider their relationships to stuff, and encouraging them to allow into their lives only things (and people, and events) that are truly meaningful to them in some way. About 90% of the work I do revolves around this reducing and reconsidering.

Second, the ranks of the NSGCD include not only organizers, but also mental health professionals, social workers, and others whose input and expertise are critical to the treatment of chronic disorganization, especially in cases of hoarding and severe cluttering. Professional organizers who work with these clients aren’t just going in and making pretty piles; in many cases, we’re collaborating with the client, his/her mental health provider, and related social service agencies. This work is so much more complex than “rearranging.”

Finally, many people (and you may or may not include yourself in this group) build their perceptions of Professional Organizers based on what they’ve seen on TV or read in a magazine. That image is an incomplete one at best. The vast, vast majority of organizers are no more focused on finding pretty homes for clients’ piles of stuff without a serious and dedicated commitment to helping people reconsider why they’re holding on to so many things and how those things impact their lives than productivity consultants are focused on helping their clients find the right calendar, PDA, or piece of time management software without doing anything at all to look at the nature of those clients’ relationships to time and tasks.

The “more profound realignment in thinking” that you mention above is and has been happening in the world of Professional Organizing for many years now. I invite you, in a sincere and snark-free way, to learn more about what we really do and how, in ways both obvious and surprising, it aligns with what you do.

You might be amazed to learn how many professional organizers are fans of 43folders. I have been one for ages, which is why I feel shocked and stung by your mash-up of misconceptions on this subject!

A professional organizer is someone who transfers organizing skills to a client. After the client has identified a goal, the first and most important organizing skill is learning to get rid of the unnecessary. The first skill plus one is learning to turn off the tap, so that useless junk doesn’t come into the person’s life in the first place. You and all of professional organizing are in agreement on the need for a profound realignment in thinking.

Not all organizers work with the chronically disorganized (some of whom are hoarders, some of whom have OCD) and not all work with closets. But the principle of improving lives by transferring organizing skills spans all the various specialties.

As a professional organizer who specializes in helping business owners and work teams to organize their time, paper and projects, I don’t see many closets. I do sometimes see in-boxes clogged with 6,000 messages, schedules larded with useless activities, and drawers crammed with ancient papers. More often I see pretty organized and effective people who want to get even more organized, because they value the ways in which improved organization can help them achieve their most important goals in work and in life.

I admit I personally geek out at the Container Store, but I seldom send a client there, because organization doesn’t come in a box. It’s about habits, not gadgets.

As a super satisfied client of a personal organizer I want to put in my two cents here. These folks provide an invaluable service to those of us who have a hell of a time getting our act together. My personal organizer set me up with a system that works for me and she checks in at random times to see how I’m progressing. Personal Organizers deserve capital letters, bold face type and exclamation points, not air quotes. Thanks!

I like to save a thing or two (OK I have a lot of junk- but I’m not a hoarder, I swear) BUT I have a very god friend who is a professional organizer and she not only helped me get my life in tip top shape but she also helped my mom- who IS a little OCD -get her life cleaned up (and once the house was organized- so was the mind… I’m just sayin’)